This invention relates to a surgical scrub appliance.
Before conducting an operation, surgical staff are required to “scrub up”. This involves carefully and thoroughly washing the hands and arms up to the shoulder. Conventionally, dispensers of soap or other cleaning solutions have been provided for this purpose. However, the act of using a dispenser can be a cause for contamination. Furthermore, the dispenser requires refilling and general servicing usually needing a contract with an outside firm leading to expense.
Proposals have been made, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,197 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,949 to provide surgical scrub brushes which includes a supply of antiseptic soap or other cleansing liquid. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,197 the cleansing liquid is provided in an independent chamber to one side of the scrubbing brush. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,949, the soap is provided in a reservoir between a sponge and a housing to which the sponge is connected. Both proposals have the disadvantage that they are expensive to manufacture, with a separate independent member needing to be connected to the surgical brush of U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,197 and an internal reservoir being provided in U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,949. The presence of this internal reservoir also makes it very difficult to attach the sponge to the housing in a secure manner. Furthermore, in both these proposals, a single reservoir is provided although it is necessary to wash both arms with a single surgical scrubbing brush and it is difficult for the user to assess how much soap has/is able to be used for the first arm while leaving enough for the second.
It is an object of the invention to provide a surgical scrub appliance which alleviates at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art noted above.